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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

A Tale of Four Warlords: Genestealer Cult Army Lists

If you've been a fan of Games Workshop games for any period of time you'll likely recall the 'Tale of Four Warlords' articles in White Dwarf. Players choose an army and show progress from building, painting, and playing a force. They provide their thoughts on how it goes and show lots of photos. We're planning on doing that here with three of us for the new edition of 40k. We aren't necessarily starting new armies, but we're expanding our current forces to include some more options and have fun!

What a Tale of Four Warlords Looks Like in White Dwarf

I've shown my Genestealer Cult models before, as I painted some for the Shadow War Armageddon League we had, but I am further expanding that into a full fledged force now. I purchased a bunch of models and put them together when they came out, but really haven't done much since as I got overwhelmed. This is a chance to take all that stuff and paint it for some great tabletop games!

The first batch of painted cultists

I wanted to give myself some milestones before I started so I put together three lists - 50 Power Level, 75 Power Level, and 100 Power Level. I think we'll probably be using Power Level to start out, at least, because its really easy and lots of people would like to try it out. It is nice, in particular, because for some reason Genestealer Cult stuff became a lot more expensive, points wise, and so the models I have with hand flamers etc. don't need to be re-done and removed because their points aren't good.

Power Levels are also just a ton easier.

I put together a 50 Power Level list and I can currently use it without having to paint anything. It is easier, since I already have a ton of genestealers painted for my Tyranids. 50 Power Level is fairly basic, with just a few units and some characters to back them up. With this list I hope to get a good cult ambush with my genestealers and patriach, while the neophytes and magus hold the line. The aberrants ride in the rockgrinder and move out to take an objective or hit a hard target.

Patrol Detachment (Tyranids - Genestealer Cults) [50 PL, 1040pts]

HQ

Father Larsa - Patriarch [7 PL, 150pts]

Magister Balventius - Magus [4 PL, 73pts]

Troops

Neophyte Hybrids [10 PL, 154pts] Cult Icon

15x Neophyte Hybrid

Neophyte Hybrid (Heavy Weapon) Mining Laser

Neophyte Hybrid (Heavy Weapon) Seismic Cannon

Neophyte Hybrid (Special Weapon) Grenade Launcher

Neophyte Hybrid (Special Weapon) Grenade Launcher

Neophyte Leader Autopistol, Power Maul

Elites

Aberrants [7 PL, 164pts]

Aberrant w/ Power Hammer x4

Purestrain Genestealers [16 PL, 360pts] 20x Purestrain Genestealer

Heavy Support

For my 75 point list I chose to take what I already had and add in a troop unit - some acolytes. These are the guys with the hand flamers that went from five points to eight, and with an additional cost increase on the base acolyte, made them unusable. I'm painting one of each heavy weapon so I can try them out and see which one I like.

So for this 75 PL list I have to paint those ten acolytes plus a sentinel (one of my favorite models that GW has ever made), and a Leman Russ tank. While the Leman Russ tank in regular points is pretty expensive, its nice for power levels to not have to worry about magnetizing etc. to take things off or put them on. So to finish that 75 PL list I need to paint a tank, ten acolytes, and a walker.

In general, the acolytes will be trying to ambush and provide some support for the genestealers, while the Leman Russ has been added for some battleline durability and anti-tank / monster firepower. The sentinel is again another AT vehicle.

For the final bump up to 100 Power Level, I'm looking at painting two more sentinels, a goliath truck transport, and another magus. I already have my primus painted, so I'm good there. I want to take a second to talk about how cool the new detachments are.

I'll be honest, I don't really want to paint 60 acolytes or neophytes at this time. Purestrain genestealers, while not only being the hardest hitters and most durable troops I have, also use more points / power levels. So I chose the detachment that allows you to have more Elite choices and fewer Troops choices. I also wanted to support my guys with another magus to throw out some Smites and support spells, so I chose to take just a command detachment that requires three HQ choices and nothing else, and I get a bonus CP for it!

I really wanted to try maybe another Leman Russ tank in this list but it just didn't fit - especially since the first detachment only allows two heavy choices. I did take another unit of genestealers which will hit really hard, hopefully from ambush. The Primus will likely be attached to them so they can re-roll their cult ambush roll.

The acolytes will likely roll in the goliath truck here, while the additional lascannon sentinel will provide AT firepower. The scout sentinel is pretty cool because it can scout up the board and throw down a heavy flamer somewhere - hopefully helping the ambushers get off a charge by taking out some chaff.

You'll notice that all my characters are named - I'm planning on doing up a quick backstory for each one as it's been pretty fun to do that for some of my Tyranid characters, like the Crimson Overseer.